Feeling stressed? Pick up a book
It comes as no surprise that reading books can be good for you, but did you know that reading can reduce stress more quickly than having a cup of tea?
According to a study from the University of Sussex, reading can reduce stress by as much as 68 per cent and it works faster than other relaxation methods such as listening to music, going for a walk or having a cup of tea.
The study also found that reading for even six minutes, was enough to reduce stress levels by two thirds. Psychologists explain that when you read, your mind is distracted and the tension in your muscles and the heart eases and stress levels reduce.
This is just one good reason to take some time out and pick up a book for Australian Reading Hour, an important annual campaign encouraging Australians of all ages to read for one hour, any time on Thursday 20 September 2018.
What do you do to relieve stress? Does reading a book work for you?
I have been reading!
Have come to something I new heard about before, it happened in January, 1919.
A flood, but not the kind you and I know.
Great Molasses Flood! A tank of Molasses burst and emptied out into the streets of Boston travelling at 35mph!
Killing 21 and injuring 150 people. It amazed me reading this, gosh that would be a good quiz question!
The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919. The temperature had risen above 40 °F (4 °C), climbing rapidly from the frigid temperatures of the preceding days.[2]:91, 95
Molasses can be fermented to produce rum and ethanol, the active ingredient in other alcoholic beverages and a key component in the manufacturing of munitions.[2]:11 The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way, in Cambridge.
Modern downtown Boston with molasses flood area circled
At about 12:30 in the afternoon near Keany Square,[3] at 529 Commercial Street, a molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter, and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700 m3), collapsed. Witnesses variously reported that as it collapsed they felt the ground shake and heard a roar, a long rumble similar to the passing of an elevated train (coincidentally, with a line of that type close by), a tremendous crashing, a deep growling, or "a thunderclap-like bang!" [emphasis added], and as the rivets shot out of the tank, a machine gun-like sound.[2]:92–95
The collapse unleashed a wave of molasses 25 ft (8 m) high at its peak,[4] moving at 35 mph (56 km/h).[1] The molasses wave was of sufficient force to damage the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and tip a railroad car momentarily off the tracks. Author Stephen Puleo describes how nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 ft (60 to 90 cm). Puleo quotes a Boston Post report:
[What a sticky mess!]
Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage ... Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was ... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise.[2]:98
Damage to the Boston Elevated Railway caused by the flood
The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. About 150 people were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed. Some were crushed and drowned by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast. In a 1983 article for Smithsonian, Edwards Park wrote of one child's experience:
Anthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
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I love to read a book. It does help you relax and I usually find I suddenly wake up half an hour later feeling totally relaxed.